No Refuge In Church Lot

Carjacker Flees Police By Taking Woman's Vehicle At Knifepoint

Lillian Graham had just finished her Sunday prayers and was standing by her car talking to fellow churchgoers when a man ran up to her, placed a knife to her throat and demanded her car.

The carjacker was running from Hartford police after an earlier knifing, and demanded Graham's car for a quicker getaway.

``This young man ran through the trees, through a playground and then he was coming straight at me. I said, `Get back -- get away from me.' That's when he pulled a knife and put it to my face,'' Graham, 60, said Monday. ``I started pleading -- `Jesus, Jesus.' He was talking fast, but I didn't know what he was saying. I just gave him the keys.''

The car was in the lot of the Martin Luther King School, where Phillips Metropolitan CME Church meets. By the time the man jumped behind the wheel of her 1980 black Mercury Sable, police had arrived.

``The police were there, because police had been chasing him,'' Graham said.

Officers ordered the man to stop, but the carjacker continued on, driving out of the lot. He sped over the median of the Westbourne Parkway and headed north.

Police continued to track the car as the man struck four or five parked cars on Tower Avenue, and then ditched the Mercury near Tower Avenue and Hampton Street. Police lost the man as he ran through backyards of area homes.

He was described as about 20 years old, 5 foot 6, wearing a green T-shirt and gray pants.

A short time later, officers gave Graham a ride to where her car had been found. On the ride over, Graham realized she wasn't going to find her vehicle in good shape.

``The tires were along the road. We were passing pieces of my car strewn on the street,'' she said.

The car was totaled. The man got away.

Graham said she was still shaken by the scare. But she said it has not diminished her faith.

``I'm without a car, but I have a life,'' she said. ``I have to be thankful.''